I’m getting pretty fed up with Tordotcom novellas. This isn’t the first time I’ve complained about them and it won’t be the last. I swear this publisher is out there trying to discover just how short they can make a so-called novella before people refuse to buy them anymore. I know I will no longer spend money on them, and it’s reached the point where I feel guilty even asking the library to buy them, knowing just how expensive ebook licenses are.
It’s not that these stories aren’t good, sometimes they’re great, but Tordotcom is out here charging novel prices for jumped-up short stories, and I don’t know how anyone is out here actually paying cash money for them instead of getting them from the library like I do. You’re really paying $25 for something you can read in a single sitting?
I’d like to see Tordotcom go in one of three directions with these novellas:
- Lean into the shortness and make them more affordable. Stop doing hardback releases, bring back the mass market pulpy paperback (then for series, every 3-4 books you can put them in a pretty special edition hardback omnibus).
- Use them to anchor a short story collection by the same author.
- Group 2-3 by different authors with similar themes (sapphic, dystopian, dragons) as a sort of small anthology.
Ok, ok, enough of my opinions about novellas, what about the actual book-shaped short story I’m here to review?
But Not Too Bold by Hache Pueyo is not the shortest novella I’ve read (that might go to Murder by Memory by Olivia Wade), but it was pretty dang short, and what’s more, I read it a week ago and I can already barely remember it, it was so slight in plot and emotional impact.
Dália, our main character, works for a monster. Not as in a bad boss, but a literal monster. Lady Anatema is part of a group of monstrous, perhaps god-like beings called Archaic Ones. These beings were more common in the past of this alternate Earth, but they are dwindling now. Anatema never leaves her beautiful mansion, Capricious House, instead luring potential brides to her home, wooing them and then eating them when they disobey her edict not to look at her, see her horrible spider-woman visage, and freak out.
Dália was apprentice to the keeper of the keys, which is literally what it sounds like, someone who keeps all the keys and unlocks the doors in the house, both the mundane ones and the ones to the tiny cabinets that Anatema keeps her animated magic dolls in. The previous keeper was eaten, not because she saw Anatema’s face, but because someone stole one of the precious dolls, which also have Anatema’s memories in them. There is a lot of ideas crammed into this small book, leaving little room for plot.
The thing is, Anatema isn’t sure if the old keeper stole the doll, or maybe Dália did, or maybe someone else did, so Dália has to hang out with her for reasons and try to figure out who the thief is, lest she be the next snack. But as she spends more time with her scary boss, she starts to realize… maybe she’s kind of into spider ladies?
The problem with this book is honestly it doesn’t lean enough into the monsterfucking. If you’re going to have a short book with little character development and little plot where there’s a sapphic romance between a human and an ancient spider monster-goddess, you might as well get freaky with it. Instead we get a romance inspired by Beauty and the Beast and Bluebeard, but without enough time to actually develop the romance.
Too often, these novellas feel like either a good idea in need of further fleshing out, or a good idea stretched out across too many pages. This is definitely the latter. The Capricious House has a dreamy atmosphere, with a field of ever-blooming poppies and a population of random tarantulas. What is the connection between poppies and spiders? Danged if I know. Maybe it’s a cultural thing (the author is Argentine-Brazilian) or maybe it’s a vibes thing. Either way, I feel like if you’re going to create such an interesting setting, let us spend more time in it. Dália briefly leaves the house to follow up on a lead; give me more of how the outside world feels about the Capricious House and having an Archaic One as a neighbor. How do they really feel about all the missing brides, about the orphans who work in the house?
I’m left wondering what the point was. It wasn’t romantic. It wasn’t sexy. It wasn’t scary. It wasn’t mysterious. It was just kind of there. I read it, I’m reviewing it, and when I look back on my reading log at the end of the year, I’ll probably have to go look at the cover to even remember what it was about.
One thing I would like to note is that this book was translated from Portuguese, and I appreciate that. We don’t get a whole lot of genre fiction, especially by women, in translation. So if you need a translated book for a reading challenge, this is a quick read and is definitely quite different from the cozy Japanese and Korean books that are currently so popular.
CWs and TWs: Spiders like whoa. They’re everywhere. One of them is a big spider lady. Her spider lady mouthparts are often described. There’s a barely-there sex scene between two humans. There’s also references to drug use, because hello, field of opium poppies.
Source and Format: I borrowed the ebook from Pierce County Library System. Thank you libraries, for buying these short little books so I don’t have to.
Reading Challenge Prompts
SAL/SPL/KCLS: Monsters. Honestly, I’m having a monster summer over here. There were so many books on my TBR about monsters, and I chose to put this one in the square, because I don’t often read monster romance. I just wish this had felt more like an actual monster romance, rather than monsterfucker bait.
Reading Challenge Progress
Nook & Cranny (Card 1): 10 of 25, no bingos.
Nook & Cranny (Card 2): 13 of 25, 1 bingo.
Book Riot: 12 of 25.
Physical TBR: 6 of 12.
World of Whimm: 15 of 24, no bingos.
SAL/SPL/KCLS: 4 of 23, no bingos.